Hollingsbourne
by knit-wear
Summary: The summer after their 5th year James coerces Sirius to spend the summer at the Black family's summer home, Hollingsbourne. Whilst James and Sirius enjoy their youth before Voldemort's rise, a new evil is brewing amongst the Blacks. Ickle bit slashy.


Note: The concept of this was drawn slightly from the Evelyn Waugh novel 'Brideshead Revisited' which is an absolutely glorious work of literature. A little bit slashy; after all Sirius and James were in love to a certain degree. The summer after their fifth year at Hogwarts James comes to stay at Sirius's summer home. He doesn't expect to get drawn into the darkness of the Black family.

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Hollingsbourne.

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"POTTER! POTTER! POTTER!"

"Bloody hell, James! Nice catch!"

"Gryffindor forever!"

"POTTER! POTTER! POTTER!"

"Prongsie old boy I dare say there shall be some festivities in your honour tonight," Sirius said slyly as he took hold of James arm and dragged him through the throng of happy classmates. The Gryffindor common room was absolutely packed to the rafters with joyous Gryffindors going mad over their victory in the Quiddich Cup Final. Most of the joy was directed at James, who had caught the snitch right out from under the Slytherin captain Jasper Dowry's smug little nose.

"I'm knackered," James moaned, ignoring the pats on the back and begs for kisses he was presently receiving. They tumbled out of the crowd and fell into a squashy crimson couch near the fireplace.

Sirius set James with a very stern look but refrained from saying anything.

"Oh shut up," James grinned, his brown eyes glittering behind a pair of his trademark round spectacles. "Anyway, it's not as if we can get drunk. We're in the common room."

"Well Potter, I believe congratulations are in order."

James and Sirius swiveled to see Lily Evans leaning against the arm of their couch. She had her arms crossed and a smirk pulling at her slightly parted lips. She wore her red hair in soft waves around her shoulders and wore a simple tee shirt and jeans but to James she looked gloriously beautiful.

"Did I impress you at last, Lily?" He stared up at her with a star struck light in his eyes. "Do you love me now?" He reached towards her, and taking hold of her waist firmly, dragged her onto the couch. "Say you love me, Lily."

"Oh Lily, say you love him." Sirius gushed.

She laughed loudly and James wanted nothing more than to keep her curled up in his arms forever. She looked at him squarely, watching his lips form an identical grin to match her own. She hesitated, and then seemed to look around warily at their celebrating class mates. Biting her lower lip she turned back to James's face, her kind eyes sparkling. "Good job, Potter," she said softly, placing her hands on either side of his face and planting a simple kiss on his mouth.

James kept his eyes shut even after she'd more or less scampered away to celebrate Gryffindor's victory and felt Sirius's arm twin around his shoulders. James dropped his head onto Sirius's shoulder, sighing dramatically. "I love her," he said, as if tortured.

"Get used to it," Sirius said dryly, then returning to his normal playful demeanor he gave James a squeeze and said, "At least you'll always have me Prongie."

The following morning at breakfast the Gryffindors were still chatting loudly about James Potter and Stewart Bell, and their amazing skill on the Quidditch pitch; ignoring the evil looks the Slytherin table sent their way. James and Sirius, with a very ill looking Remus in tow, breezed past the slimy gits, making sure to glare appropriately at Snape as they headed to breakfast.

Remus sat first and put his head in his hands. "I want to die."

Sirius pouted at his friend, "Oh come on Moony, you're making me depressed. Drink more pepper up potion."

"Sirius, I've had three vials so far today," Remus lectured, "You should never even exceed two but you coerced me into it anyway as—"

"As usual," James giggled.

"Exactly," Remus sighed, looking very miserable. His skin had taken on an unnatural gray colour, and the bright red scratches down his neck had yet to subside. His light brown hair flopped awkwardly over his forehead, barely concealing his sunken, blue circled eyes. He was perpetually pouting that day, as he always tended to the days after his transformation. James and Sirius didn't mind, James even suspected Sirius liked taking care of Remus when he was ill; a blatantly unexpected character trait.

The mail arrived, and with it a storm of birds and owls of all sizes. A quite fat tawny owl bearing the Potter crest around his neck landed square in front of James and instantly began pecking as his porridge. "Oy, bird, get out of it." James said, shooing his mother's owl away from his food. The bird had an envelope with _James Potter_ written in old fashioned cursive script attached to her leg.

"Wonder what Mummy could want now with so few days left of term," James said distractedly as he removed the envelope and removed the letter inside.

_James,_

_I have missed you so much my darling, why don't you ever write your poor old Mother? I am writing to let you know that I shall not be at Godrick's Hollow when you arrive on Saturday evening as I will be going to Zurich tomorrow to visit with Auntie Stella. She's very lonely up in the mountains now that Uncle Jack has died. I feel it would be most rude not to visit now. I know that it is short notice, darling but I shall be back within two fortnights._

_Love and many kisses,_

_Mum_

James set the letter down next to his porridge and frowned, puzzled and faintly annoyed that he would have to be home by himself. His family owned a large manor outside of the village of Godrick's Hollow where James had grown up. The house was over three hundred years old and full of remnants from the past of the many generations of Potters who had lived in the manor. He loved his home when he was younger and Nanny Price was a Governess to play with rather than the senile old woman as she had become in recent years. Everything about the house was old and stale smelling, especially since James's Father had passed away the previous summer. Now it seemed that his Mother always had some friends or relatives that needed seeing in Canada or Cornwall or Switzerland, effectively keeping her out of the house while James was at school. It made him very sad to know that his Mother was lonely. So sad in fact that he didn't notice when Remus started waving a sausage link in his front of his dazed face.

"Alright mate?"

"Yes," James shook his head and ran a hand through his hair to mess it up, "My Mum's not going to be home for a couple of weeks when I get back to Godrick's Hollow." He looked at Remus's sickly face, "Could I come stay with you Mooney?"

"Oh yes," Remus said, his tone deep with irony, "If you fancy sharing a single bed in that tiny wood shack my parents call a home."

"Better than being alone at the Hollow," James admitted, rubbing his face. He squinted at Sirius. "Where are you this summer?"

"Hollingsbourne." Sirius said blandly, though he was referring to his family's country estate, a vast house made from the blocks of what was once a castle dating back a millennium. "No one's there for a month before my cousin's wedding so I intend to avoid those nutters for a little while at least." By nutters he was obviously referring to the grim Black family, whom Sirius had nothing but loathing for.

"Well, can I come stay at Hollingsbourne with you then?" James asked, his eyebrows raised inquisitively. "Well?"

"No," Sirius dragged the syllable out to emphasize how strongly he felt about James coming to Hollingsbourne. And how tragically mislead the idea was in the first place.

"What do you mean, no?" James asked, offended. "Why can't I come stay with you? If no one's there its not like the pure blood police are going to be on patrol the whole time."

"Not the point." Sirius mumbled. "I don't want to drag you into that whole mess."

"Hmm," James stuffed an overly heaped spoon of porridge into his mouth; he was not yet ready to give up on staying with Sirius at Hollingsbourne. It was a lovely estate with sprawling lawns and gardens that went on for miles. He reckoned it had once belonged to muggles but was so large and exquisite that the Blacks decided to overlook that small fact despite their hatred for muggles and muggle borns.

Later that day during Potions, Slughorn was having them finish off their cauldrons of Polyjuice which would be their final marks of the year. Lily and Remus were fussing over their shared cauldron like frantic old women whilst Snape sat reading his Potions book as if it were literature and stirring his potion slowly; meanwhile Freddie Shaw, Snape's hapless partner sat sleeping with his mouth wide open.

James and Sirius sat towards the back, their cauldron bubbling idly while they talked quietly. "Do you reckon this'll end up killing someone?" Sirius muttered, stirring the potion a bit more."

James glanced at the potion and shrugged, "At worst someone could end up with an extra kidney. Hey Sirius?"

"What."

"Let me come stay with you at Hollingsbourne before your family get there."

"Please stop asking me Prongsie, you make me feel like such a bastard every time I tell you I don't want you to come."

"You are a bastard."

"I know." Sirius stopped stirring and set James with an inquiring stare. "Why do you want to come to Hollingsbourne so much all of a sudden? I don't trust it."

James grinned ruefully. "Mostly because you don't want me to, probably. It sounds exciting. Like we could get into a lot of trouble… "

"Damn you," Sirius pouted, at last consenting to James's delight "All you have to do is appeal to my mischievous side and I'll do anything you ask of me."

James grinned triumphantly. "Do you have any side other than a mischievous side?"

"Don't flatter me so much. On one condition."

"What's that?"

Sirius shot Lily a meaningful look; at present she had her hands pressed to her face whilst Remus dashed about the cauldron with various herbs and spices, trying to right a very obvious wrong. Sirius giggled at seeing his two friends panic. "You have to ask Lily out on a date and she has to say yes."

James chortled loudly, "It's not like I can take her out to dinner. The best I can do is Fire Whisky and moonlight."

"Sounds perfect to me," Sirius giggled devilishly.

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